Cleveland Guardians All-Star Jose Ramirez is a darkish horse within the American League MVP race, and on Wednesday, he supplied another excuse why he is deserving.
Ramirez went deep in opposition to the Arizona Diamondbacks, securing a 30-home run, 20-stolen base marketing campaign for the third time in his profession. The 31-year-old is now tied with Alex Rodriguez (2007, 2005, 2004) and Howard Johnson (1991, 1989, 1987) for essentially the most such seasons by a 3rd baseman in MLB historical past, per Stathead.
Solely 14 third basemen all-time have achieved the feat not less than as soon as. Ramirez is certainly one of solely two energetic gamers on the listing, together with Manny Machado, who completed with 35 dwelling runs and 20 stolen bases for the Baltimore Orioles in 2015.
Within the Guardians doubleheader in opposition to the Diamondbacks, Ramirez completed 2-for-7 with two RBI. He is slashing .282./.335/.548 with a .882 OPS and ranks fifth in dwelling runs (30) and second in RBI (96) amongst MLB hitters.
As is anticipated from MVP-caliber gamers, Ramirez has been remarkably constant for the Guardians. Since Might 5, he is gone hitless in back-to-back video games solely as soon as, posting 25 dwelling runs, 71 RBI and solely 44 strikeouts over that stretch (337 plate appearances).
Nonetheless, Ramirez is seemingly a protracted shot to win the AL MVP award. In accordance with Fanduel Sports activities E-book, he presently has the fifth-best odds (+13000), behind favourite Aaron Decide (-1350), Bobby Witt Jr. (+700), Gunnar Henderson (+1600) and Juan Soto (+3000).
It most likely does not assist that Ramirez and the Guardians are within the midst of a five-game dropping streak, their longest of the 2024 season. However on the brilliant aspect, Cleveland (67-47) remains to be answerable for its future, proudly owning a 3.5-game lead over the Minnesota Twins (63-50) for the AL Central division lead.
